Cypress man sought in child porn sting

Harris County and federal authorities are looking for a Cypress man they say downloaded and shared child pornography on his home computer.

Bruce Robert Estep, 49, faces two counts each of promotion of child pornography and possession of child pornography, court records show. He remained at large Monday.

In July 2010, an undercover investigator with the London Metropolitan Police Service launched an online probe into the trafficking of child pornography, and identified a user named “Hedoalltan” who was sharing child porn images, according to a criminal complaint filed July 29.

The London detective downloaded 33 digital images and a video from the suspect of children engaged in sexual activity, the complaint states.

Investigators identified Estep as a suspect by tracing his unique computer address, and they raided his home in January 2011 with a search warrant. Detectives seized several computers and memory devices, according to the criminal complaint.

The raid was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security and Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

A forensic examination of the data uncovered more than 500 digital images of child pornography, including 22 images that had been downloaded earlier by the undercover investigator in London, the complaint states.

Several of the images included children as young as 5 years old engaged in sexual acts, investigators said.